A ten-year-old child was among dozens of tourists rescued today after spending the night stranded in cable cars dangling above the Mont Blanc mountain range. The tourists were suspended above the glaciers of Mont Blanc at an altitude of about 3,800m (12,468ft) after wires carrying the cars became tangled, reported the BBC.
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The extent of the rescue operation is so large that helicopters rarely rescue 110 people at the same time in high mountain. Rescuers provided blankets, food and water to help weather the chilly mountain conditions overnight.
“The last hour seemed very, very long”.
The tourists rescued so far are understood to be French, Italian and American.
A cable auto system between it and Pointe Halbronner become stuck, with 110 people on board.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t untangle the third cable so, as it was getting late, we decided, in accordance with procedure, to call the police helicopter to evacuate as many people as we could before night fell”, he said.
An EC-135 helicopter operated by the French Societe’ Civile hovers, Friday, Sept. 9, 2016, near three cars of the Panoramic Mont Blanc cable auto where tourists were trapped after it stalled around 4 p.m. (1400 GMT) on Thursday, w.
An Italian police officer escorts a boy who was trapped overnight in cable cars above the Alps. “They were given special survival kits including energy bars and emergency blankets”.
Mathieu Dechavanne, the head of the cable auto company, said it appeared that cables had crossed over “for unexplained reasons” but probably due to strong gusts of wind.
The Mont-Blanc Company thanked all those involved in the operation, and praised “the exemplary conduct of the trapped persons, and their calmness. which allowed the evacuation to be carried out in all serenity”.
The incident began Thursday afternoon, when high winds caused the cable vehicle lines between the peaks to become tangled and stopped the gondolas, trapping more than 100 people, according to the Associated Press.
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The incident comes five years after about 40 people were stuck for almost seven hours on the Grande-Motte cable auto in the south-eastern French Alps after it broke down.
